Human remains found in Oil Creek State Park more than a year and a half ago have been identified as those of longtime missing person Bradley White, Titusville Public Safety Commissioner Dustin LeGoullon told the newspaper on Friday.
White had last been seen Nov. 1, 2018, walking away from a friend’s house after a minor altercation in the 100 block of West Main Street in Titusville, according to archives of the Titusville Herald, which were provided by Benson Memorial Library in Titusville. He was 46 at the time of his disappearance.
LeGoullon said the remains were found April 15, 2022.
Venango County Coroner Christina Rugh said Friday “we had to take an ATV from Drake Well past the train tracks and then hike the rest of the way off the trail on foot.”
The remains were sent to Dennis Dirkmaat, a forensic pathologist with Mercyhurst University, to be analyzed.
LeGoullon said because the remains were found in Venango County, Franklin state police were leading the case, with Titusville police assisting.
State police, as of Friday afternoon, had no further information regarding their investigation.
Dirkmaat said Mercyhurst’s Department of Applied Forensic Sciences handles, on average, 130 police cases a year, with between 15 and 25 of them involving the recovery of remains.
“If we are involved in the retrieval of the body, the first step we take is to determine the postmortem interval (amount of time that has passed since death) based on the deterioration of the body,” he said. “A lot of times, police will have an idea of who the body may be based on that.”
“We can then pull dental radiographs from any dental work that they have had done, and comparing postmortem to antemortem, we can determine if the records match the remains.”
Rugh said the remains found in April 2022 were “skeletal,” but that the skull had good and intact dental work. Upon further investigation, no antemortem dental records were able to be found.
With the limited remains available, Rugh said DNA was determined to be the next best option.
Dirkmaat explained in any case involving remains, “DNA is usually the last choice we have … it is often slow and very costly.”
Rugh said the DNA on White’s remains degraded as a result of the length of time they had been exposed to the elements, which narrowed the number of labs able to provide the tests needed. “Beyond that, COVID had many labs shut down, which made finding a lab to provide tests all the more difficult.”
After finally finding a suitable lab to run tests, Rugh said, DNA results positively identifying the remains as those of White were received.
“The remains we have show no signs of trauma,” she said. “We can’t yet determine a cause or sign of the death with the resources available to us.”
